Of Love and Friendship
by Swift178
Summary: Eggman has kidnapped Princess Elise and Amy Rose, taking them to Kingdom Valley. Now Sonic must complete the three trials of Soleanna to enter the ancient castle, but one trial requires Sonic to think about his feelings for both girls.


Disclaimer: None of the characters in this story belong to me. They belong to Sega/Sonic Team.

**Of Love and Friendship**

Forest Town; the rural section within the Kingdom of Soleanna. It was an attractive, pleasant place where the trees stood tall over everything else, and the sun seemed to smile down upon the few people who took their time wandering amongst the grassy terrain with endless energy. It was hard to believe that this place would lead to the somewhat ancient ruins of Kingdom Valley, which while they were beautiful, they were also fraught with danger.

Sonic the Hedgehog was not the only person who had visited Kingdom Valley before, but he most certainly felt a strange feeling of loss around the place that none of his other friends had felt. It was possible that his new friend Silver might understand why, but he was not a person who liked to burden others with his thoughts and worries. He was able to recall the first and last time in which he had visited the place; the endless lakes of water glittered, and the grass seemed as alive as it might have done several years ago. Despite that, the memory of the Egg Carrier explosion, knowing that Soleanna's Princess Elise was on board the giant aircraft at the time, was not a pleasant one in the slightest.

The blue hedgehog looked towards the deserted castle up ahead, sighing a little. He never imagined that he would have to return to this place, and certainly not in this manner. It was just completely typical of Eggman to choose his time to kidnap the young, beautiful human princess and especially to hold her hostage in _this _location of all places. If there was one thing Sonic hated, it was being reminded of his failures, despite the fact that he knew they helped him improve himself mentally and physically. However, he felt a slight shift of relief at the knowledge that Amy was not around to follow him; he hated the thought of her jumping to conclusions about what he did with his time and how he might feel towards Elise. He liked both girls equally, after all.

"Took you long enough."

Sonic felt himself jump out of his skin upon sight of Shadow the Hedgehog suddenly exiting a Chaos Control in front of his very eyes, as serious and cold as the blue hedgehog had ever known him to be. Following him, Sonic also caught sight of an accomplice; a milk-white bat bearing sexy clothing and glimmering aqua coloured eyes.

"Hey Shadow, hey Rouge," Sonic greeted with slight enthusiasm, greeting them with the standard thumbs up he had always been known to present, "What's kicking?"

Shadow merely turned his head in a slightly irritated manner while Rouge nodded towards Sonic, a large smirk crossing her eighteen-year-old face, "You should know perfectly well what is going on. Eggman has your girlfriend locked up in a tower, and she eagerly waits for her beloved hero to rescue her."

Sonic couldn't help but glare at that remark, "Elise is not my girlfriend."

Rouge's smirk widened even further, her eyes sparkling with hidden knowledge that Sonic had to admit was extremely annoying. The bat gently lifted herself upwards, flapping her wings a little to keep her floating just centimetres above the ground, "I wasn't referring to the Princess. I was referring to your other little girlfriend. You know… the one who mindlessly yells out your name whenever she catches sight of you?"

Sonic's eyes widened a little bit as the knowledge started to sink in. He instantly began adding all of the pieces together, praying it would make sense, "Eggman has Amy?"

"Bingo," the bat stated, floating around as carelessly as she possibly could, "Though there is a bright side; we've managed to gain you some assistance."

Sonic's eyes travelled towards the moody black hedgehog standing not too far from Rouge, who refused to look at him, "You mean Shadow?"

"Partly," Shadow finally turned to face his blue hedgehog counterpart, his blood red eyes as cold and as unwilling as before, "G.U.N managed to make special contacts with somebody else who's offered to help."

Sonic's head tilted to the side in confusion, "Who?"

Rouge fluttered her eyelashes in Sonic's direction, causing Shadow to turn away again with a slightly disapproving noise. The bat lowered her eyes a little in response to Sonic's question, "He should be here any minute no- ah, took you long enough."

The blue hedgehog turned quickly to see who had entered their company and had to suppress a grin upon sight of a white hedgehog slowly walking towards them, looking as enthusiastic as he had ever done. Sonic raised a hand; his eyes alight in enthusiasm, "Yo, Silver!"

Silver smirked a little, speeding up to a jog, eventually arriving in the inner circle of four, "What's up, guys?"

**XXX**

The three male hedgehogs and female bat followed the form of an elderly male human, who had small amounts of greying hair and a rather large bald patch atop his head. He wore long robes of cream and gold, as well as there being dark glasses perched on his wrinkled, crooked nose. Sonic in all honesty was not looking forward to what he knew was about to come. He had managed to get into Kingdom Valley without doing anything last time, so the knowledge that there were 'trials to complete' slightly unnerved him. He tried his hardest to shrug it off; after all, he was Sonic the Hedgehog. If he put his mind to it, he could do anything.

Finally the old man led them all up towards a stone altar, containing three poles, which each had a bulb on top unlighted. Sonic blinked a little in surprise, trying to figure out what it precisely meant. Before his thoughts could truly take wing though, the old man had begun speaking, "This is the Altar of Soleanna, the one place in which people seek answers for their problems, where the weak become the strong and where one's faith is restored. It is also the place in which the Trials of Soleanna are held."

Silver blinked, rubbing his chin with his forefinger, "Trials of Soleanna?"

"Yes," the old man explained in a slow voice, "In order to enter the land of Kingdom Valley, there are trials which are necessary to complete. For some people, there are merely two. For others, it reaches a grand total of three. Of course, this all depends on the person who takes these trials."

"Excuse me," Sonic butted in; he knew he was being rude, but it was a point he felt needed to be crossed, "But I managed to get into Kingdom Valley before without needing to take any trials."

"Same here," Silver agreed, causing Sonic to shoot him a fleeting thankful grin.

"At the time, our Princess was in great danger and we were willing to let anybody pass in her time of desperate need," the old man explained in answer to Sonic's question, despite the rudeness that came from the blue hedgehog, "Now is a time for caution. It is not just one innocent person who the doctor holds prisoner this time."

Sonic caught sight of Silver look to the floor with a distant look in his eyes upon the words of the elderly human and found it too uncomfortable to look at the white hedgehog. He reverted his gaze towards Shadow since looking at Rouge might seem a little too rude especially considering how feminine she was.

"When all three lights are lit," the elderly man gestured towards the bulbs atop the poles, "you may proceed into Kingdom Valley to rescue our Princess and the other young lady."

Sonic shrugged, the uneasiness of the situation had died away, "Should be a piece of cake."

Silver willingly grinned in agreement with Sonic, "No problem."

"I am assuming that all three of you wish to partake in the trials?" the old man's gaze mainly rested on Shadow since he was the only one who had yet to say anything. Eventually the black hedgehog nodded towards the human without saying a word, before the old man smiled.

"Then let the trials begin."

**XXX**

The hedgehogs had been taken to a separate part of forest not far away from the Altar of Soleanna; the landscape was pretty clear and flat as it had been before. Finally the elderly man turned and smiled at the three hedgehogs, who had been forced to leave Rouge behind at the altar during the time of their trials.

"It is here in which some of your trials will take place, while some of your other trials will take place in the forest over there," the human pointed a wrinkled finger in the direction of a mass of trees, "Each of you will have different trials which will play on both your weak and strong points."

"May we ask what those trials are?" Silver asked quickly, something inside of his yellow eyes stirring which I hadn't noticed before.

The elderly man smiled, "I hoped you would. Silver, your trials consist of Heart, Intelligence and Friendship. Shadow, your trials purely consist of Intelligence and Strength. Sonic, two of your trials are of Intelligence and Courage. I will reveal your third trial to you in due course for reasons I feel are necessary."

The blue hedgehog nodded, feeling a little cheated that he had to do three trials whereas Shadow only needed to complete a simple two. However, he took it in his stride; he needed to do these trials to save Elise and Amy after all.

"Your first trial you will do at the same time; the Trial of Intelligence," the elderly man explained, "It will take place within the forest, where there are several scattered warp holes. However, only the correct chain of four warp holes will lead you to the place you seek. There are various clues which should help you reach your goal. Would you like to begin?"

With nothing left to lose, the three hedgehogs nodded simultaneously and followed the elderly man into the forest, anticipating the upcoming trials which could potentially test them to the extreme.

**A/N**

_Something I wrote a while ago, based on the Town Missions (or the trials, as they're called in the game) you had to do to get into Kingdom Valley. I changed a few things around in this story of course, but I do plan on finishing this. There will be alternate endings, of course, due to Sonic's third trial which is more or less what this is based around. I may write a story based on Sonic and the Secret Rings in the future, but it's unlikely at the moment. I would have posted this sooner, but for some reason I couldn't upload any documents. _

Though I'm going to give minor insights to Sonic's other two trials, though don't expect to see much from Shadow and Silver. This is set in an alternate universe where the events of next-gen were never erased to begin with, so that's the reason why Sonic knows of Elise, and why Silver and Sonic know each other.


End file.
